"I think about the public outcry that there was for an elk, and I think about the thousands of babies — healthy, full-term babies — that are killed down the street from where they paraded a stupid elk down the road," Johnson said. "I think of how ludicrous it is that every day a man kills babies and there are not thousands of people standing in front of his facility with a public outcry. That is the disconnect that we are living in today in this society."

Anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson speaks to roughly 300 people at the University Memorial Center's Glenn Miller Ballroom on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder. (Jeremy Papasso / Staff Photographer)

Johnson spoke Monday on the University of Colorado's Boulder campus, where just 20 percent of students and 8.4 percent of faculty members identify as conservative, according to a 2014 survey.

Roughly 300 people listened to Johnson's talk inside the University Memorial Center's Glenn Miller Ballroom, where organizers had set up 1,200 chairs.

After spending eight years at a Texas clinic, Johnson resigned from Planned Parenthood in 2009 because she became increasingly disturbed by the abortions she witnessed, she told the audience.

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She wrote the book "Unplanned" about her experiences and now travels around the world to share her story, according to her website. She also founded And Then There Were None, an organization that works to help abortion clinic workers get out of the industry.

When she started volunteering at Planned Parenthood as a Texas A&M University student, Johnson was a "good Christian kid," she said.

But, one internal rationalization at a time, she became someone she didn't recognize.

"'How is it that you went from being that kid to being someone who ran an abortion clinic?'" Johnson said, describing some of the questions she gets. "'How is it that you went from being that person to a person who laid on an abortion clinic table not once, but twice, to take the lives of my own children through abortion?' I don't have a silver-bullet answer for you except to say that it happened just a little bit at a time."

The Cultural Events Board paid $6,000 for Johnson's visit, according to event organizers.

Johnson started the evening by saying that it took some "legal hustling" for her to be able to speak on campus.

"They don't want a pro-life message, apparently, on this campus, but we're going to give it to 'em anyway," she said, drawing applause from the audience.

Asked about Johnson's comment, a university spokeswoman said that initially the Cultural Events Board wanted to invite speakers from both sides of the issue.

"After Students for Life appealed, however, the board decided it was equally important to have diverse voices on campus who can educate and inform the campus community," said Deborah Mendez Wilson, a campus spokeswoman.

University of Colorado seniors Louise Macdonald , right, Stephanie Giltner and Becky Harhigh listen as anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson speaks during a Students For Life at CU Boulder event on Monday at the Glenn Miller Ballroom inside the UMC on the University of Colorado campus in Boulder. (Jeremy Papasso / Staff Photographer)

Johnson described her life now, six years after leaving Planned Parenthood, by telling the audience about her five children. She talked about the decision to adopt her youngest son, Jude, last year.

"I think about Jude, I think about his life and I recognize truly what a miracle his life is, what a miracle it is that he is here with us," she said. "But honestly when I think about the lives of all children who are born into today's society, they're all a miracle."

She encouraged students and members of the audience to stand up, speak out and make abortion a hot topic on campus.

"Don't be silent," she said. "Not now. Not on this issue. We can't afford it. These babies can't afford it. Their moms ... we have to do something."

Though several police officers were present, the event was peaceful. Some members of the audience asked Johnson pointed questions without issue.

Wearing a white T-shirt that read "Pro-choice, pro-feminism, pro-cats," Chanel Sulc, who said she was not a CU student, stood outside the University Memorial Center holding a sign that said "Repackaged patriarchy is not feminism."

She was one of three demonstrators outside the student center before the event's 7 p.m. start.

"I just heard about this and I came along because I thought it was some kind of joke," Sulc said. "It just wasn't conceivable to me. Not that I'm not aware that patriarchy exists, but that an institution of higher learning would allocate money to bringing a speaker who's trying to take away the rights of more than half of the student body."

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